I wrote it as clear as you heard: Bethlehem Shoals is sick of rumors. I wouldn't refer to myself in the third-person unless I really wanted to call attention to my own folly. So there's your disclaimer on this: I LIE.

However, the future of Andre Iguodala is about more than who goes where and for what. Comparing Andre Iguodala to Lamar Odom is misleading; besides being a more unique player, Odom is at once spacier and in theory, more likely to serve as a nervous center of a team. A weird one, indeed, but wasn't that the premise behind that rad Odom/Dwayne Wade/Caron Butler Heat team? Why does Shaquille O'Neal ruin all the interesting teams?

As we've seen from Odom's post-Heat career, though, he's either most comfortable, or at least has no problem with, taking a secondary role. In fact, with the Lakers, Odom's nearly an afterthought.

Iguodala has much to recommend him: stellar defense, great feel for the game, strong passing and rebounding, world-class athleticism, superb slashing, and the willingness to develop his outside shot. And yet Iggy, like Odom, might be about to surrender his place on pedestal.

If the playoffs began today, the Thunder would be in the conversation. Kevin Durant is within percentage points of leading the league in scoring, and has led his team to wins over the previously red-hot Nuggets and Hawks in the past week. As such, Oklahoma City finds themselves moving all the way up to the six spot in this week's Rankings.

The Cavaliers, of course, are still on top, but there was plenty of movement otherwise. Read on to see where your favorites ended up this week.

LeBron James has been positively cosmic this season, even more incredible than in his MVP 2008-09 season. So good has been LeBron that broadcasters have had to invent new statistics to capture exactly what it is the Cavalier does. Such as the "chase-down block," coined a year ago and in full usage these days.

Last season, the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Brian Windhorst reported that the Cavs had begun tracking chase-downs, primarily because LeBron had made it a signature play of sorts. (Consider it the NBA's version of the "fourth quarter comeback," a stat created by the Broncos to get John Elway more pub.) LeBron had 23 CDs last season, according to the team. (You can see many of those in this clip.)

ORLANDO, Fla. -- This wasn't exactly the Vince Carter of old, but it sure was better than the Vince Carter of late.

The Orlando Magic feel a little better now about the chances of defending their Eastern Conference title and staying within sight of the Cleveland Cavaliers during the second half of this season.

The worst slump of Carter's career has been pronounced over -- at least for now.

"I can still do everything I used to do,'' Carter said confidently after getting 17 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in a 99-82 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks Tuesday. "It might be that January just wasn't my month.''

It's a Saturday night, which means it's alright for fighting. So let's entertain ourselves with some silliness. There are all manner of reasons to doubt that LeBron James will be leaving the great city of Cleveland this summer. The Cavs can offer the most money. It's his home state. And if he walks away with a championship this year, it will be almost impossible for him to walk away.

But really, what's the fun in that scenario? And today brings us a perfect vision to lay out an unlikely but forseeable path that nets (no pun intended) LeBron in Brooklyn in two years. And the path to the King taking New York by storm? It leads through the great state of Kentucky, where James made an appearance.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- After watching a weekend round-robin of Boston-Atlanta-Orlando -- three of the four Eastern Conference contenders -- one thing has become increasingly clear in this race:

These guys are all just playing for second.

That Cavaliers-Lakers NBA Finals that everyone wanted -- but didn't get -- last June is coming this time. Even with more than 30 regular season games and six weeks of playoffs remaining, it's hard now to imagine 2010 turning out any other way.

The Cavs and Lakers are on a delightfully unavoidable collision course. The standings don't lie.

There is nobody in the West within five wins of the Lakers. And the Cavs are six wins better than anyone in the East.

"Nobody in the East is playing close to the level Cleveland is at right now,'' said Magic coach Stan Van Gundy on Saturday night. "We've got a long way to go -- and funny things can happen in a series -- but if you're talking about who's playing at the highest level, it's clearly Cleveland.''

Guns. They walk among us. They end lives and protect families. And recently, they've been the latest reason for people to say they'll never watch another NBA game.

So naturally, Nike -- the don of all basketball gear-makers -- would pick this week to run a print campaign that features the game's two biggest stars alongside gun-related lingo. In what has to be the worst timing in the history of sports advertising, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James will appear in important national magazines casually referring to their sport, and themselves, in terms ripped from the sinister world of firearms.

That sound you heard was a million intelligent professionals slapping themselves in the forehead and wishing print media could move as fast as the internet.

But wait, it gets worse. They just had to go and accidentally use the one term most reliably associated with the long national nightmare that was Wizardsgate. From ESPN.com:

The Nike ad, inside the cover of this week's editions of ESPN The Magazine and Sports Illustrated, has LeBron James on one page and Kobe Bryant on the other. Along with the slogan, "Prepare For Combat," is a quote from each player showing how tough he is.

Bryant's blurb says: "I'll do whatever it takes to win games. I don't leave anything in the chamber."

Needless to say, this is an absolutely terrible idea, and you have to assume that if there were any way to avoid this hitting stands, it wouldn't be. No one in any position to decide anything, even what kind of ice cream they feed the dogs at NASA, would let this ad go through in this current climate. I would encourage Nike to send little kids out the intercept and destroy every issue containing these advertisements, lest its good name and its two of its most valuable brands not be, ummm, caught in the crossfire.

NBA veteran Delonte West of the Cleveland Cavaliers is also known as "The Golden Panther." Here's an interview with Delonte from last season when he first introduced us to his fighting style.

In this FanHouse exclusive, Delonte teaches how to shoot three's using his special technique. In his wise words: "You first have to learn how to miss, before you learn how to make."

Check out the video below.

For the most part, the coaches got it right while selecting the 2010 All-Star reserves. But no matter how many deserving players get in, there are always a few who were on the fringe that could just have easily made the team. In no particular order, here's our list of notable names that may have a reason to feel snubbed.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Chris Kaman (Clippers): Kaman is having his best year as a pro, averaging 20.2 points, 9.1 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks per game. But the team he plays for is abysmal (seriously, how do you lose to a Nets team playing without Devin Harris by 16 points?), and that seemed to factor heavily in this year's selection of reserves. As noted by Eric Freeman over at The Baseline, every player on the reserves came from a team with a winning record. And unfortunately for Kaman, his Clippers don't fall into that category.

Chauncey Billups (Nuggets): Let's get this out of the way right now: Billups is an All-Star. The Nuggets are on fire, and there's no way they play at that level without Chauncey running the show. The problem he faced was too much talent at the guard spot in the Western Conference. With Chris Paul and Deron Williams locks to get in, and Brandon Roy almost singlehandedly keeping the Blazers afloat through their rash of injuries, he had to get in, too. But Roy has missed six of the last seven games with a hamstring injury, and if it remains serious enough to keep him sidelined for All-Star weekend, look for Billups to get the call as his replacement.

NBA veteran Anthony Parker knows what it takes to win title. While playing in Israel with Maccabi Tel-Aviv, he won five Israeli League championships, five Israeli National Cups, two Euroleague titles and one Suproleague title, and was voted two-time consecutive Euroleague MVP. This season, he's bringing his championship mindset to the Cavs.

In this video we talk to Parker about being teammates with LeBron James, Shaquille O'Neal, his sister Candace Parker and more.

Check out the video below.